1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface mounting surge absorber and a surface mounting cap for a surge absorber, and in particular to an improved surface mounting surge absorber and surface mounting cap for a surge absorber which can be incorporated onto a printed substrate or the like with high mounting density.
2. Description of the Related Art
High voltage surges such as stray waves, noise, and electrostatic disturbances are deeply-rooted obstacles to the most up-to-date electronic devices. In particular, high voltage pulse waves cause erroneous operations of semiconductor elements in electronic devices, and in some cases, may even destroy the semiconductors or the devices themselves. Various types of surge absorbers are used in order to prevent such high voltages from flowing into the electric devices.
A surge absorber has been disclosed by the inventors which has a simple structure and shows good characteristics, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-268936. With this surge absorber, a wide range of surge characteristics can be covered with an inexpensive structure and a compact shape.
However, when such a surge absorber is to be incorporated onto a printed substrate, the lead lines provided at both ends of the surge absorber are inserted into a through hole of the printed substrate and then soldered. Because of this, in the prior art, the soldering operation of the surge absorber onto the substrate required many steps. Also, because the printed substrate must be provided with a through hole, a two-sided substrate could not be used.
In order to handle the above problem, there is a strong demand for a surge absorber which can be surface mounted. With a surface mounting surge absorber, the incorporation operation onto the printed substrate as described above can be significantly simplified, and such a surge absorber enables the usage of two-sided substrates. Moreover, the overall device can be densified and the surge absorber can be mounted onto the print substrate with high density. Because of this, the surge absorber is advantageous in reducing the size of the electronic devices.
The present invention is conceived to solve the above described problem in the prior art and one object is to provide a surge absorber with a simple structure which can be surface mounted.